Unfinished Business

Right Lunenfeld asserts that the "business of computers is always unfinished." As much as people cringe at the word "unfinished" we cannot forget how "sexy", as Lunenfeld puts it, and provacative unfinished can be. Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, JFK, and Lincoln are just a few people who were killed or died in their prime and are now forever idealized by the populace because they did not have the opportunity to expose all their talents...to realize all their dreams. In the case of computers and new media unfinished doesn't relate to unrealized work so much as the fact that the computer keeps changing itself and keeps upgrading.

Peter breaks his essay into three sections: unfinished spaces, unfinished stories, and unfinished time. As he discusses spaces one discovers that new media continually transforms architecture; thus, it is always unfinished and always changing. Video walls, flat screens, etc. are all invading our living spaces and changing the environment around us. When he moves on to unfinished stories the essay really becomes interesting. Already with the rise of new media people are experimenting with new ways to tell stories, such as the use of hypertext. Movies and the new media that is involved in creating them also tell stories, and change over time. On another note many stories, like the American comics, truly are unfinished and will never be finished. The story is ongoing, and even when it seems complete, like new media people will find a way to reinvent the story to tell it again in a different way. Eventually the author moves to unfinished time. Here he touches on the subject of time and mortality, exploring the much theorized concept that perhaps one day man will find a way to encase our consciences into the cyber-world so that man may escape death.

I don't know about putting my "mind" into cyberspace, since death is part of the process of life and I do plan on getting to that point someday; however, for the most part I found this essay intriguing. The reading was not too difficult, although tiring at times. I particularly the bits on narratives. Its true mankind will always take classic stories that have been told millions of times and try to find new ways to tell them again making stories unfinished. The whole concept that new media, and computers in general are unfinished seems right on the mark. New media is always "new", thus it is always changing and adapting, so inevitably it is unfinished because no one will ever be complacent with a product, the product will always be updated.